Dr Ferdinand Marletaz
My research interests are at the interface of developmental biology and evolutionary genomics. I have a longstanding curiosity for the genomics of minor phyla, particularly chaetognaths. I am generally concerned with the importance of whole genome evidence to better resolve the phylogeny of metazoans. I am currently involved in the sequencing and analysis of many transcriptomes and genomes spanning broadly across metazoan diversity, including lepidoterans, fishes, annelids, molluscs, chaetognaths, cephalochordates, priapulids... Among ongoing projects, I am attempting to evaluating the functional impact of whole genome duplication in animals using gene expression profiling. I am also trying to uncover new instances of whole genome duplication and to discover unusual patterns of genome evolution after duplication. I am keen on developing a new framework for comparative transcriptomics and functional genomics in an evolutionary perspective. Selected publications: Simakov O, Marlétaz F, Cho SJ, Edsinger-Gonzales E, Havlak P, Hellsten U, Kuo DH, Larsson T, Lv J, Arendt D, Savage R, Osoegawa K, de Jong P, Grimwood J, Chapman JA, Shapiro H, Aerts A, Otillar RP, Terry AY, Boore JL, Grigoriev IV, Lindberg DR, Seaver EC, Weisblat DA, Putnam NH, Rokhsar DS. 2013. Insights into bilaterian evolution from three spiralian genomes. Nature 493(7433):526-31. Sobreiraa TJP, Marlétaz F, Simões-Costa M, Schechtmane D, Pereiraa AC, Brunet F, Sweeney S, Pani A, Aronowicz J, Lowe CJ, Davidson B, Laudet V, Bronner-Fraser M, de Oliveira PSL, Schubert M, and Xavier-Neto J. 2011. Structural Shifts of ALDH Enzymes Were Instrumental for the Early Evolution of Retinoid-Dependent Axial Patterning in Metazoans. Proc Nat Acad U S A 108(1):226-31 Finet C, Timme RE, Delwiche CF, Marlétaz F. 2010. Multigene Phylogeny of the Green Lineage Reveals the Origin and Diversification of Land Plants. Curr Biol 20(24):2217-22. Marlétaz F, Gilles A, Caubit X, Perez Y, Dossat C, Samain S, Gyapay G, Wincker P, Le Parco Y. 2008. Chaetognath Transcriptome Reveals Ancestral and Unique Features Among Bilaterians. Genome Biol 9(6):R94. Marlétaz F, Martin E, Perez Y, Papillon D, Caubit X, Fasano L, Dossat C, Wincker P, Weissenbach J, Le Parco Y. 2006. Chætognath Phylogenomics: a Protostome with Deuterostome-Like Development. Curr Biol 16:R577-8.